A major winter storm, linked to four deaths, has hit US states from Texas to Virginia, breaking snowfall records.

The freezing weather has closed highways and schools, grounded flights and prompted governors to declare states of emergency.

On Tuesday a temperature of -40F (-40C) was recorded northwest of Grand Lake, Colorado, compared with 83F (28C) in Hollywood, California, according to the National Weather Service.

A snowstorm warning for 31 million people – from southern Texas east through Georgia and north to the Carolinas and into Virginia – is in effect.

A further 172 million people have been under cold weather alerts, enduring temperatures 20-35F below average.

Four people have died of suspected hypothermia, two in Austin, Texas, along with another in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and also in Georgia where temperatures fell as low as 16F (-9C) in parts of the state overnight.

In Louisiana, around 10in (25cm) had already fallen in some parts of New Orleans by Tuesday evening, breaking the record of 2.7in (6.8cm) set in 1963.

It has been more than a decade since snow last fell on the city.

People attempted to ski along the city’s historic Bourbon Street, and elsewhere in the city a priest and nuns engaged in a snowball fight.

In Texas, the first-ever blizzard warnings were issued for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border, where 6in (15cm) fell in Pine Forest.

In Houston, both major airports and Port Houston – one of the largest ports in the US – suspended operations.

Meanwhile, snow and ice triggered about 168 crashes involving vehicles in Harris County, the local sheriff said.
Snow has covered the white-sand beaches of normally sunny vacation spots, including Alabama and Florida, where snowploughs have been deployed.